{"id":145615,"date":"2025-04-12T14:49:15","date_gmt":"2025-04-12T14:49:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/yellowdogwire.com\/?p=145615"},"modified":"2025-04-12T14:49:17","modified_gmt":"2025-04-12T14:49:17","slug":"alabamas-hemp-ban-is-bad-policy-with-dangerous-fallout","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/yellowdogwire.com\/?p=145615","title":{"rendered":"&#8220;Alabama\u2019s hemp ban is bad policy with dangerous fallout&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.alreporter.com\/2025\/04\/11\/opinion-alabamas-hemp-ban-is-bad-policy-with-dangerous-fallout\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">AL Political Reporter<\/a>: &#8220;In less than five minutes \u2014 with no debate and no amendment \u2014 Alabama lawmakers advanced a bill that could criminalize legal products, gut small businesses, and send people in need to the black market. They say it\u2019s about safety. But HB445 is a blunt instrument disguised as protection \u2014 and the fallout will be severe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">House Bill 445 hands sweeping power to the Alcoholic Beverage Control Board, bans all inhalable hemp products \u2014 including vapes, buds, and flowers \u2014 and forces what\u2019s left into pharmacies and liquor stores. Never mind that those stores don\u2019t carry these products or that they aren\u2019t equipped to serve patients seeking plant-based alternatives. This isn\u2019t about regulation. It\u2019s about control.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">HB445 is a case study in how to turn a legitimate concern into a harmful overreaction. You don\u2019t reduce harm or promote public safety by forcing a legal industry into hiding. Yet that\u2019s exactly what this bill does. People who rely on THCa, Delta-8, or other hemp-derived products won\u2019t stop needing them just because the state says so. They\u2019ll turn elsewhere \u2014 to unregulated, untaxed, and potentially dangerous alternatives.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>AL Political Reporter: &#8220;In less than five minutes \u2014 with no debate and no amendment \u2014 Alabama lawmakers advanced a bill that could criminalize legal products, gut small businesses, and send people in need to the black market. They say it\u2019s about safety. But HB445 is a blunt instrument disguised as protection \u2014 and the&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-145615","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-newsstory"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/yellowdogwire.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145615","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/yellowdogwire.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/yellowdogwire.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yellowdogwire.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yellowdogwire.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=145615"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/yellowdogwire.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145615\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":145616,"href":"https:\/\/yellowdogwire.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145615\/revisions\/145616"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/yellowdogwire.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=145615"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yellowdogwire.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=145615"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yellowdogwire.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=145615"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}